Global Gaming Directory Website Network

10/12/2010

Australian Gambling, Sports And Entertainment, by Greg Tingle - 12th October 2010

The Australian gambling, sports and entertainment sector continues to run at fever pitch. We've got Aussie poker politics, Mark Webber continuing his winning ways in F1, Royals banned from cricket, Commonwealth Games scandals and more. Media Man and Gambling911 give you a gold pass to the some of the best coverage found anywhere on the planet...

New South Wales Opposition: Liberal Party Would Stab Pokies Tax; Club Friendly And Smart...

A New South Wales Coalition government would slash and brutally cut up pokie taxes by a massive $300 million over 4 years if clubs agree to contribute significantly more to community organisations. In was in 2004 that the State Government increased tax rates on gambling revenue for large clubs but the Opposition has announced a plan to cut rates back, turning back Father Time (should be the name for slot game). Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell says the plan is geared to create 2,000 jobs and raise community contributions from clubs by $270 million a year. He says the policy will ensure clubs remain viable but also contribute to the community, so its a real win - win. "When clubs are unable to provide funding to local social, community and sporting groups what happens is those groups come to Government," he said. Media Man also also recently seen a rise in the level of sponsorship requests, even though the books are full and not taking on any additional community projects for the time being. "It makes a lot of sense to ensure that clubs are able to do the job they've done for more than 50 years, which is support local neighbourhoods, support local groups through funds they're raising in their clubs." O'Farrell denies the announcement has anything to do with donations from clubs to the Liberal and National parties.

Network 10 has got criticized after not providing live coverage of Steve Hooker's gold-medal winning efforts. Despite Hooker’s being the biggest track and field star of these Commonwealth Games, Ten did not manage to cross live to any of his attempts as they happened, focusing rather on events on the track. Hooker secured gold at 12.45am AEDT, when England’s Steven Lewis failed in his attempt at the height of 5.70, but Ten did not broadcast these events until 45 minutes later. Hooker's first jump was made at 12.25am AEDT, with Ten going on to show it 15 minutes late. Ten's head of sport David Barham said last night the network had been cursed by a faulty cable. "Ourselves and the BBC had an optical fibre fault from Nehru stadium, and there was nothing we could do about it," he told Delhi Now. "From my understanding it was about 20 minutes delayed, but we couldn't do anything. This happened before we started (the telecast) when a road fell in and cut the cable back to Australia, so it's happened before. "This time there was a fault and the line back to the IBC (International Broadcast Centre) didn't work." One of Foxtel’s Delhi-specific channels was able to broadcast the entire pole vault competition without interruption. Barham said the channel was on a two-minute delay while showing Sally Pearson’s 100m hurdles medal ceremony before the fault kicked in, causing viewers to miss the chance to see the end of the pole vault competition. However, Hooker had already won gold by the time Pearson's medal ceremony took place, unknown to to Network 10's viewers. Barham said the network had followed its policy of going live all the time. "We have been live with everything we have done, consistently live for all nine days," he said. Readers of Delhi Now’s live blog on the event were outraged. "Can't believe Ch10 is missing this," posted dp. "Effing channel 10,” posted Sarahmagpie. “This is ridiculous!” Steve wrote: "Up until now I've enjoyed 10's coverage, but not showing Hooker is inexcusable. Are the great minds behind Channel 7's coverage doing this? Although no one really cares about the Winter Olympics Nine did a great job showing it. Bring on Channel 9 and London 2012." The Seven Network was panned at the weekend for gradually delaying its coverage of Bathurst until it was nearly half an hour behind. The network's response was that "our objective was (for) viewers not miss a moment of action," but it allowed Seven to increase its ad revenue. Seven also came under fire for their delayed coverage of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, with their failure to show Hooker’s gold-medal winning efforts live used as a prime example.

Delhi's Commonwealth Games suffered its first positive drugs test on Monday, leaving the women's 100m with potentially a 3rd different winner, as India braced itself to hail a new track queen. Nigeria's 100m gold medallist Osayemi Oludamola, who only inherited the winner's position after Australia's Sally Pearson was disqualified for false-starting, tested positive for the banned stimulant methylhexanamine. If the 24-year-old is stripped of her gold medal, Natasha Mayers of St Vincent and The Grenadines would be promoted to first with England's Kathryn Endacott taking silver and Bertille Atangana of Cameroon coming 3rd. "Any positive test, whether in a high-profile event or not, is something we very much regret because we all strive for a clean Games and a clean sport," said Commonwealth Games Federation president Mike Fennell. "We don't know what sort of damage will accrue but we want to let everyone know that we are very vigilant and we are doing all we can to eliminate doping in sport." Despite the positive result from Thursday's final, Oludamola competed in the 200m heats on Sunday, but finished fourth in her heat to miss out on making the final. That medal race was due to be held Sunday evening but was postponed after more chaos when Elena Artymata of Cyprus, the fastest qualifier, was disqualified from her semi-final for stepping out of her lane. Her appeal was turned down with the final delayed until Monday. India, who have stretched their gold medal lead over England, was still on a high Monday after seeing their men's hockey team defeat rivals Pakistan 7-4 to make the semi-finals, have high hopes of a rare track gold for Tintu Luka. She is one of the favourites for the 800m title later in the day, but she will face stiff opposition from a trio of Kenyans including Nancy Langat, the Olympic 1,500m champion. "Tintu is in good form. I don?t want to talk much about the final and put unnecessary pressure on her. It is a very competitive field," said her coach PT Usha. The 800m, which will be missing world champion Caster Semenya after the South African pulled out of the Games injured, is one of seven golds up for grabs on the track. Rugby sevens got underway on Monday with a series of one-sided encounters.New Zealand, bidding to become the first country to win four successive team golds, saw off Canada 43-7, Wales beat hosts India 56-7, England mauled Sri Lanka 59-7 while world sevens series champions Samoa defeated Papua New Guinea 38-17. In women's hockey, defending champions Australia defeated England 1-0 to reach the final where they will face either New Zealand or South Africa. Media Man says its not whether you win or loose, its how you play the game. Former BetUS ambassador and Minnesota governor Jesse "The Body" Venture used to joke (we think), "It's not how you play the game, it's whether you win or loose, but always cheat"!

Aussie Pearson Pissed At Drug Fuelled 100m Race...

Sally Pearson has spoke out on the drug controversy surrounding her ill-fated 100-metre final, suggesting that gold medallist Oludamola Osayemi should not accept her medal and describing the situation surrounding the still-unresolved drug test as "a joke". Pearson added, in a pointed critique of Osayemi's positive test for a banned substance, that she was happy to be "running drug free. It's just a joke you know," said Pearson, minutes after her redemptive gold medal in the 100m hurdles. "I don't know how you can accept a medal knowing what you've done to yourself. But I'm happy I'm out here running drug free." Dr Mani Jegathesan, the Commonwealth Games anti-doping chief, admitted Osayemi's failed drugs test would tarnish the image of the Games to some degree. He also denied any suggestion that anti-doping measures had been compromised by the chaotic start to the Games, during which the late arrival of many athletes forced alterations to the testing program. "That has not been the case," Jegathesan told the press. "Every system in place is a balance between affordability and availability and you have to find that. What I believe we have put in place is a system where every athlete feels they are an equal chance of being tested before, during or after a race. They should be thinking, 'It could be me today' whether it's because they have won a medal, selected at random or targeted. "We've done nearly 900 tests and this is the first positive, and I think that says a lot. It's not great news for the Games, but it is news that shows there are systems in place that should act as a deterrent."

Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne says he is totally shocked by the news that the franchise has been thrown out of the Indian Premier League. The Australia sporting legend led the Royals to the IPL crown in the competition's inaugural season two years ago. Now the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced on Sunday that the Royals' franchise agreements with Punjab and Rajasthan had been terminated "based on legal opinions". The decision was made due to issues over the outfit's ownership, with Kings XI Punjab also greatly suffering the same fate and a warning being handed out to the new Kochi franchise. But Warnie said that he hoped the BCCI, who own the lucrative Twenty20 event, would "come to their senses". "Thank you for all your messages of support, still shocked at IPL news re the Royals, what are other owners saying? Hope to know more asap," he said on his infamous Twitter account. He then went on..."The Royals gave young unknown Indian players a chance and I as captain backed them, and our coaching staff supported them... we were a team. "Three seasons ago Royals won the first-ever IPL, underdogs come good, what a story, it helped give credibility to the competition. Now look. "What now for the youngsters?" As well as Warne, fellow Aussies Shane Watson and Shaun Tait, Graeme Smith of South Africa and Pakistan's Kamran Akmal and Younus Khan are among the star names who have played for the Royals. On a side note, Warnie remains passionate about poker and gambling, and has recently inked a deal with Australian casino king, James Packer, which will involve Warne doing lots of promos at Packer's Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia.

Sebastian Vettel won the Japanese Grand Prix for the second consecutive year, leading a Red Bull one-two with Mark Webber on Sunday. The 23-year-old German, who started from pole position, snatched his 3rd victory of the season, with championship leader Webber finishing second, 0.9 seconds behind. It was Red Bull's 3rd 1-2 finish of the season after Malaysia and Monaco. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was 3rd, 1.8s behind Webber, while McLaren teammates Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton were fourth and fifth, Hamilton nursing an ailing car to the finish. The victory was the 8th of Vettel's career, and he joins Mika Hakkinen (1998, 1999) and Michael Schumacher (2000-02) as the only drivers to win consecutive races at the high-speed, 5.8 kilometre track. With only 3 races left, Webber leads with 220 points and Alonso is second with 206, edging out Vettel, also with 206, on race wins. Hamilton drops one place to 4th with 192, and Button remains fifth with 189. Despite finishing behind Vettel for the 2nd consecutive race, Webber said it had been a "very good day. The most important thing is the gap is going in the right way," Webber said. "I have to keep it like that. We have three races to go, and it is a good result for me. "Seb deserved the victory, but I need to win again in the future. I'm confident I can do that." Vettel praised his car after his first victory since the European Grand Prix at Valencia in June. "It's about time," he said. "This track is like it has been drawn for us with all the high-speed corners. It's always a pleasure. When the car was getting lighter and lighter with fuel at the end, it was more and more fun. "You want to push every single lap because the car is magnificent around here." Vettel was quickest to react at the start, leading Webber off the line. The Aussie was passed into the first corner by Renault's Robert Kubica but a safety car period slowed the race as quickly as it had started. Kubica's teammate, Vitaly Petrov, smashed into a wall trying to avoid the slow-starting Williams of Nico Hulkenberg, while Ferrari's Felipe Massa clashed with Force India's Tonio Liuzzi at the 1st turn. Both drivers retired on the spot. Kubica then retired under the safety car when the right rear wheel of his Renault worked loose on lap three, leaving Webber to chase Vettel when the race resumed 4 laps later. Button, the only driver in the top 10 to start on the more durable harder tyres, led the race for 13 laps in the middle stages before his pit stop for softer rubber dropped him to fifth. He regained a place when Hamilton had to slow with gear-selection problems with 9 laps left. In a recent poll 83% of Australians think Mark Webber will win the drivers championship. Media Man publicly congratulates on his outstanding success this season. Yep, Webber is no turkey.

Jackman continues to get into shape for "Wolverine 2,", and his bank account is also getting into even better shape, as is the case whenever he takes on the Marvel Comics - Marvel Entertainment 'Wolverine' role. Jackman remains good friends with News Limited king of the world Rupert Murdoch. Rumours are running crazy that the Wolverine game will soon appear at PartyGaming and Richard Branson's Virgin Casino. Thor And The Incredible Hulk are the 2 more popular games at Party at the time of publication, with Spider-Man making a late crawl up in the rankings. Stay tuned, but as we say at Media Man with Marvel - don't just watch the movies - play the games!